Huxloween: The Thirty Night Trial

Day Three: Meta Horror

There was a long, loud, plaintive howl.

Hux glanced towards the window, but Kylo had already pulled the curtain. Reluctantly, he left the cosy chair by the fireplace to check outside.

From the window. Not by opening the door. Not if there was a wild animal hunting.

There was just darkness, and the reflection of the interior of the cabin he and Kylo were occupying for the night. "Kylo?"

"Hmm?" The Force user didn't look up. He'd managed to get dirt all over the front of his helmet during the hike and was near totally absorbed in polishing it clean.

"Kylo, could you do a Force scan thing and check if there's anything out there?"

Kylo huffed and closed his eyes. "Trees…bushes…plants…birds…small woodland animals…"

"Any large, canine predators?"

"I don't- Ah!"

Kylo started as Hux jumped back from the window. Something had slammed into it. He didn't get a good look, but there was hair, and fangs.

"Okay, there's something out there," Hux answered his own question, returning to peering through the glass. "Come have a look."

Kylo joined him. "It came out of nowhere, I swear," he complained. "Not sentient. Just hunger and…urges."

"Hunger and urges," Hux repeated. "Urges like, perhaps, eating us?"

"Uh, yes. And then finding a female."

"Too much information," Hux muttered. There was a shadowy shape visible, but he couldn't quite work out what it was. Then it raised itself on its hind legs, lifted its snout to the full moon, and howled.

"I think it's a werewolf," Kylo said, sounding mildly interested. "A humanoid who-"

"Turns into a rabid wolf," Hux finished. "A skin-changer that requires a certain intensity of lunar reflection to change. But I don't think they can open doors, so we're fine." He dropped the curtain.

"It might break through the door," Kylo remarked, but he didn't sound terribly concerned about it either.

"You brought your lightsaber," Hux shrugged. He twisted his wrist and half-drew a knife hidden up his sleeve. "And I'm hardly defenceless."

"I think we need silver to kill it permanently," Kylo frowned.

"What about fire?"

"Okay, or fire, but my 'saber might not count…"

"Doesn't matter," Hux shrugged. "We carve it up and put it on the fire. End of problem."

Kylo smirked, but before he could respond, there was a knock at the door. The Knight pulled back the curtain again and peered out. "Hux, there's a man in some sort of archaic evening dress and a cape with fangs," he said slowly.

"Let me in, little humans," a decidedly creepy voice echoed. "Let me in so I can drink your blood."

Hux looked through the window. "I think that's a vampire from some bad horror holo," he commented. "One of my dorm mates at the Academy was obsessed."

"A creature that survives purely on the blood of other creatures?" Kylo scoffed. "That's just…I mean...for one thing, wouldn't that cause nutritional difficulties?"

Hux titled his head. He hadn't thought about that for a long time, not since his dorm mate had been raving about how cool it must be to drink blood. "Well, the minor nutrients, vitamins and minerals and such, they'd probably be in sufficient quantities," he mused. "Other things, proteins and sugars and lipids, might be more tricky. It would probably depend on how well-nourished the victim was."

"But…you need bulk in your food," Kylo protested. "Fibre. So that you can…um…pass waste…"

"I suppose…if you could absorb one hundred per cent of your sustenance you might not need to pass solid waste," Hux hypothesised. "But the digestive tract would have to be different, and I'm not sure about excretion. Hmm."

"And he can't get in without an invitation or he'd have barged in rather than knocking, so we're fine," Kylo shrugged.

"Yes, I suppose. Perhaps we should take turns to keep watch, though," Hux suggested. "In case the werewolf comes back."

"Good idea," Kylo nodded. "Do you want first or second?"

"First, I think," Hux decided. "I'm not particularly sleepy. But you can make breakfast in the morning."

Kylo nodded and made himself busy arranging his bedroll on one of two beds in the cabin. Then there was a strange, sort of cracking sound. "What was that?"

Hux stared out the window, and then turned back to him. "You won't believe this, but there's an army of reanimated corpses coming out of the ground…"